


First Glance

by numbah34



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Divergent, One Shot, Originally Posted on Tumblr, What If...?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-01 20:35:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19185094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/numbah34/pseuds/numbah34





	First Glance

__**Author’s Note:**  
I’m gonna throw a disclaimer in here and say up front that I DID borrow some lines and scenes from a few episodes of the show; I needed them for the narrative. I claim ABSOLUTELY NO OWNERSHIP of those lines of dialogue or situations therein. This is a work of fan fiction.  


* * *

Lance had been so excited to begin his first year at the Galaxy Garrison. He had run immediately to tell Veronica, then the rest of his family. They had celebrated, offered congratulations, and talked about all the amazing things he would learn at the Garrison. He was so eager to become a fighter pilot, he could all but hear the heroic stories people would tell of him one day.

Now, as he sat back in his seat and tried to focus on the words coming out of Commander Montgomery’s mouth, he was struck yet again with the realization that school for pilots was, in fact, still school. He quietly sighed and leaned his head back to look at the ceiling, hoping to look merely contemplative.

Growing bored with counting the spots on the ceiling tiles, he soon let his gaze wander aimlessly around the room at his classmates.

Hunk, his best friend, sat alertly and quietly jotted notes down in his notebook. He might get queasy on the simulators, but when it came to academics and theories, he left everyone else in the dust. Lance wasn’t sure he could even imagine meeting someone as smart as Hunk; the creative possibilities for mischief were endless in such a scenario.

His gaze shifted a few seats over, landing on James Griffin. Lance fought the urge to roll his eyes. James was nice enough, and intelligent, too, but it was obvious he knew it. He also had an irksome tendency to want to blame others for being better than him at some of the skills. 

Lance continued to let his eyes wander, finally resting on the boy sitting a few seats in front of him. Though this boy was quietly minding his own business, and also occasionally jotting down some notes, Lance could not help his immediate mental reaction:

_Ugh. Keith._

Something about this guy just rubbed him the wrong way. It might have been Keith’s natural talent at the flight simulators, or how he was just effortlessly good at so many of the other skills they were taught, or maybe it was his rapport with Shiro, Lance’s hero, to whom Lance had not even gathered the courage to speak. In any case, Lance felt a personal rivalry with Keith. 

Keith turned his head to look out the window. Lance also tilted his head to see what had drawn his attention. 

Speak of the devil! Not far away, Shiro was walking across the courtyard. He stopped, seemingly waiting for someone. He looked over at the classroom windows, then smiled and waved at Keith. Keith gave a little smile and nodded. 

Before Lance could begin internally grumbling, something caught his attention in his peripheral vision. He turned his head and looked out his own window, just in time to see a woman and a girl, who looked to be about his age, walking across the courtyard toward Shiro.

The woman apparently recognized Shiro, and waved. She continued walking towards him. The girl, however, seemed distracted, looking around at the buildings and the complex, slowing her pace, stopping randomly, and taking in her surroundings in wide-eyed wonder. Her mouth moved almost non-stop, as though she were asking questions quicker than they could be answered. As she spun in her roundabout investigations, the skirt of her purple dress flared slightly, and her long, honey-gold hair fluttered around her shoulders. The woman- her mother?- beckoned her over, laughing. The girl grinned and hurried over, following Shiro and her mother into the building.

Lance watched until they disappeared from sight, unable to take his eyes off the girl. Apparently, her grin was infectious, as he felt himself smiling.

She was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. And so curious! Were the buildings and the courtyard really that interesting? Lance would have to look for himself, later.

Who _was_ she? That was the real question. He spent the rest of the lesson thinking about who she could be, and how she and her mother knew Shiro. Perhaps she was a prospective student? That thought made him smile again. Maybe they would be classmates!

Class was dismissed not long after that. As Lance was putting away his materials, he heard a voice call to Keith from the front of the classroom. He looked up in time to see Shiro at the door, waving his rival over.

Lance narrowed his eyes and turned his focus back to gathering his things. Suddenly, he caught a flash of purple out of the corner of his eye. He looked up again, this time to see a much more pleasant sight: the mystery girl had entered the classroom. 

She was up by the teacher’s desk, interestedly looking at the class materials from the day’s lesson. Her bright eyes seemed to be taking it all in. Lance, meanwhile, was frozen in place, eyes locked on her, and mouth too dry to speak. 

Her head popped up at the sound of her mother’s voice, and she hurried to the door. She paused as she reached the doorway, seeming to feel the intense blue eyes boring into her. She met Lance’s eyes, and for the briefest moment, stared back. Then, she smiled shyly, ducked her head, and stepped out of the classroom.

Lance stood frozen in place for a minute. He felt someone tap his shoulder.

“Hey, man! Ready to get lunch?” Hunk smiled at him expectantly, then took in Lance’s shell-shocked expression. “Um… everything okay?”

Lance felt his ability to speak return. “Who do you think that was?” he asked, voice pitched ever-so-slightly higher.

“Who?” asked Hunk, looking toward the door where his friend had continued to stare.

Lance broke his gaze away from the door and stared at his friend. “The girl! In the purple dress! She was just in here!” he raised an eyebrow. “How did you not see her?”

“I dunno, I was putting my stuff away and not really looking for any strangers coming into the room.” Hunk shrugged. “Why? What did I miss?”

Lance sighed. “The most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”

Hunk immediately rolled his eyes. “Right. So, totally different from every other girl you’ve ever told me about.”

“No, I don’t know how to explain it,” Lance felt his cheeks flushing slightly, “but there was something that just seemed… different about her.”

“You got all that from just one look?” Hunk asked, skeptically raising his eyebrow.

“Listen, I _said_ I couldn’t explain it!” he looked back at the door. “I have to know more about her! Come on!” he picked up his backpack and headed to the door.

“What?” Hunk exclaimed, caught off guard by his friend’s sudden action. “Where are we going?”

“To find out who she is!” Lance called back with a grin as he reached the door. “Are you coming?”

Hunk reluctantly took off after him. “But… but lunch!” he protested halfheartedly.

The two boys spent most of their lunch period walking through the halls and trying to find out where the mystery girl had gone. Lance wasn’t sure what he would say if they found her, but maybe introducing himself would be the best thing to do? He mentally practiced his introduction. 

_Hi, I’m Lance. Future fighter pilot. …No, no, how about: the name’s Lance. And you are…?_

With ten minutes of their lunch period left, Hunk convinced Lance that they had probably just missed her if they still hadn’t been able to find her. They grabbed a couple snacks from the cafeteria vending machines before heading to their next class.

Hunk noticed the downhearted expression on Lance’s face as they walked to class. “Hey, you know, if she was visiting here with her mom, and they were talking to Shiro, maybe that means she’s going to start school here!” He gave him an encouraging smile. “Just because we couldn’t find her today doesn’t mean you’ll never see her again!”

Lance felt the corners of his mouth turn upwards into a small, hopeful smile. “Yeah… yeah! You’re right!” he exclaimed. “I’ll just have to keep my eyes open!”

* * *

  
**_A few months later…_ **

Lance could not believe that he still had not seen the girl on campus again. Every day, in every class, he would frequently cast a glance out the window to see if he might catch her again. He was met with disappointment time and again.

One day, while sitting in another lecture, he was surprised to see their professor stop in the middle of a lesson to address an alert they had just received. The professor’s expression became somber; news had just come in that the Kerberos mission the Garrison had sent out only a few months previous had gone missing. The suspected cause, he said, was “pilot error.”

Lance jumped a little when Keith shot out of his seat and dashed from the room. He and Hunk exchanged a worried look. Pilot error… Shiro had been the pilot on the Kerberos mission. _Shiro_. The greatest flight prodigy of whom Lance had ever heard. If he could mess up on a mission… Lance gulped. For the first time in months, he let thoughts of the mystery girl take a backseat to his studies. He could not afford to let himself be distracted.

* * *

**_A year later…_ **

“I’ve been thinking, Hunk.”

“Uh-oh.”

“No, no, hear me out, it’s nothing bad, I swear,” Lance reassured his friend. The two boys were busily getting ready for their first day of the new semester, dressing in their cadet uniforms and inspecting themselves to make sure their presentation was acceptable.

“I really hope this isn’t more of your thoughts on our placements for Sim teams. I’m nervous enough about that already!”

“Not this time,” Lance replied, smiling sheepishly. 

“Uh-oh, I know that look, too,” Hunk frowned.

Lance plowed on. “Listen, though! What if mystery girl was never going to enroll in the Garrison? What if she was just on a tour? Or was just coming with her mom on some business-related errand? I’ve been thinking about this all wrong!”

Hunk sighed, resigned. “Go on…”

“What if mystery girl is actually from around town?”

“I’m not sure I like where this is going.”

“What if I haven’t seen her again because she has no reason to come here? I’ve been looking in entirely the wrong place!”

“Here it comes…”

“Hunk! We need to take a trip into town!” Lance grinned triumphantly.

“There it is.” Hunk sighed again. “And when exactly do you propose we do that? Our schedule is packed pretty tight this semester. We’re supposed to be learning to fly the simulator! And we’re going to need to practice. That’ll take time. And what if we end up on teams where we don’t get along with anyone?” Hunk felt his anxieties rising to the surface.

“We’ll figure it out! Maybe make a full team outing of it. Call it ‘team-building’, or something.” Lance shrugged. 

“I don’t know, man… this just sounds like a bad idea. We’re not supposed to leave campus unless we’re with an officer.” Hunk gulped. “We could get in a lot of trouble.”

“Don’t worry, Hunk,” Lance confidently reassured his friend. “Just leave all of that to me. I’m sure I can figure it out.”

The boys made their way to the administration offices, anxiously wondering about their sim team placements. Spying the list posted in the hallway, Lance quickly scanned through the assignments until he found his name. He turned and smiled widely at Hunk.

“I made it! I’m a fighter pilot!” he exclaimed gleefully, bursting into an impromptu celebratory dance in the hallway. “Hasta la later, _Keith_!” He cast a salute of sorts into the open hallway, directed at their absent former classmate. 

He turned and leaned on Hunk’s shoulder, pointing to the list again. “And look, you’re my engineer!” He grinned at their good fortune.

“Cool…” Hunk almost sighed with relief, then continued with a slight air of trepidation, “Uh, can I do that from the ground?” He looked at Lance nervously, who looked back in mild disbelief.

Lance chose not to dignify that question with a response. He turned his attention back to the list, to see which of their classmates would fill the third spot on their team. “And our communications officer is… uh…” he squinted at the unfamiliar name. Definitely not anyone he had met before. “Who the heck is ‘Pidge Gunderson’?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Right here!” an unexpected voice answered from behind them.

The boys both turned around at the sound of the new voice. There, standing in the hallway, was a bespectacled boy who might have been the most diminutive of any of their classmates. He looked as though he was feeling awkward and a little shy; definitely a newbie.

Lance and Hunk stepped toward their new teammate. “Welcome to the team, Gunderson! I’m Lance, your fighter pilot.” Lance crossed his arms across his chest. Wow, but it felt good to identify himself as a fighter pilot! He had been so worried that he would still be stuck as cargo class…

“Hey. I’m Hunk.” Hunk reached out and briefly shook Gunderson’s hand.

“We’ve got a lot of great times ahead, so we should probably start bonding now,” Lance stated, suddenly remembering his idea from that morning. “What do you say we sneak off campus for some pizza, maybe meet a few of the local girls, tell them about studying to become astronauts…” Lance trailed off, noticing that Gunderson didn’t seem to be looking at, much less paying any attention to him! His eyes grew wide with indignation, then narrowed as he frowned at his new teammate.

Suddenly, Gunderson flinched and cast his eyes downward, pulling his left arm up into a loose, amateurish salute.

“Wrong arm, cadet.”

The three boys all jumped at the gruff voice of Commander Iverson. Lance and Hunk straightened immediately into a proper salute, and Gunderson quickly changed which arm he held at what was still a sloppy salute.

As the commander passed, the new cadet closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief.

“Hello? Pizza? _Girls? Astronauts??_ ”

Gunderson opened his eyes to find Lance leaning forward to meet him at eye level, his face about a foot away with an annoyed expression firmly in place. The cadet looked surprised only momentarily, then switched his expression to one of crabby indifference.

“Sorry, I don’t have time to mess around with you guys,” he stated matter-of-factly as he hunched his shoulders and strode away from Lance and Hunk. “See you in the simulator.“

Lance straightened his posture and glared after their new teammate. “What’s _his_ problem?” Lance grumped. He scowled, then turned and headed in the opposite direction. Hunk followed after Lance.

“Well, who says we can’t use the excuse of ‘team bonding’ for the two of us to sneak into town?” Lance said, setting his jaw in determination as he walked down the hall.

Hunk sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say that…”

Lance started mentally planning their excursion; he _would_ find the mystery girl. He just knew it.

* * *

_UGH_ what an embarrassment that simulator training had been. Lance had been looking forward to finally getting to fly the simulator and impress his team with how well he could lead them, but nothing had worked like he had imagined. Instead, they had failed miserably, argued with each other nonstop, and only served as a cautionary tale for the next group of cadets.

Now back in their room, Lance was stewing over their performance that day while Hunk was getting ready for bed. 

Lance thought back to his arguments with Pidge during the test and felt a little guilty. It couldn’t have been easy for him; Pidge had just started at the Garrison not that long ago, and was paired with two people who had known each other for far longer. Lance frowned as he thought of their first meeting and the poor first impression he had gotten from Pidge; what if he had also made a bad first impression? The new cadet was so closed off; they knew almost nothing about him. Perhaps it was time for some team bonding…

Lance grinned. “Hunk!” he exclaimed, startling his friend. “Put those pajamas down and get your civvies! Tonight, we are bonding!”

“Oh, no.” said Hunk. He looked at Lance pleadingly. “Come on, Lance, we’ve already gotten yelled at by Iverson once today, I don’t know if I can take another!”

“It’s going to be fine,” Lance tried to reassure his friend as he pulled on his favorite sneakers. 

“Every. Single. Time.” Hunk deadpanned. “That is how many times we have gotten caught trying to sneak out.”

“But this time, we’ll have help!” Lance declared.

“What? Who?”

“Tonight we’re taking Pidge with us.”

“Riiiiiight.” Hunk raised his eyebrows skeptically. “What makes you so sure he’s going to want to come with us?”

“Because there’s no way we’re going to pass that simulator if we can’t bond as a team.” he asserted. “Now stop whining and finish getting ready!”

Soon, the boys found themselves sneaking down the hallway, listening for any senior officers that might be moving through the halls.

“Lights out in five! Everyone back to their dorms, now!” Commander Iverson boomed. 

Lance and Hunk peeked out from around the corner to see the commander heading down a different hallway.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Hunk whispered nervously.

“You heard Commander Iverson, we need to bond as a team!” Lance brushed aside Hunk’s worried statement. “We’re going to grab Pidge, hit the town, loosen up, meet some nice girls,” he allowed himself the familiar hopeful thought, “maybe-”

“Mm’kay, I’m just, I’m just saying this here, right now, on the record: this is a bad idea.” Hunk sighed.

The lights shut off, and Lance quietly ran across the hallway, Hunk reluctantly following. They ducked down as they reached the brightly lit Instructor’s Lounge, in which several teachers milled about.

“You know, for someone in a space exploration program, you don’t have much of a sense of adventure.” Lance said as he slunk down the hallway. He crouched down by the lounge window.

“All of your little ‘adventures’ end up with _me_ in the _principal’s office_ ,” Hunk hissed, checking behind them. 

Lance carefully peeked into the window, looking to see if they could sneak past unnoticed. He dropped to his elbows and knees and began crawling determinedly.

Hunk deeply sighed in resignation. “Oh, man…” He also sunk to the floor and began crawling after his friend.

The boys made their way to section L5 North of the barracks, dodging and hiding from security officers along the way. Hiding in some trash bins, they heard a passing officer announce over his walkie-talkie that the hall was clear. As soon as he had passed by, they popped out of their hiding spots. …Well, Lance popped out of his; Hunk lost his balance trying to extricate himself and crashed to the floor.

“I’m fine!” Hunk said to no one in particular, attempting to recover some of his dignity from his fall. Lance, meanwhile, calmly sauntered toward room A-34: Pidge’s room.

As they approached, the door whooshed open, and the boys immediately ducked behind a corner to avoid whoever was coming out. Lance cautiously peeked around the corner, only to see Pidge emerge from his room and quickly scurry down the corridor. He carried what looked to be a large backpack on his back.

“…Where is _he_ going?” Lance asked suspiciously, stepping out into the hall and staring after their smaller teammate.

* * *

  
That had _not_ been how Lance had envisioned the evening going. As the sun rose over the horizon, he once again tried to think through everything that had happened in the last several hours. 

He and Hunk had followed Pidge up to the rooftop and caught him listening… to space? Alien chatter? And then the alien ship had shown up, they had run for a closer look, and Pidge had discovered that Shiro, the pilot from the Kerberos mission who had gone missing a year ago, had crash landed and was being examined by Garrison specialists. Lance made a mental note to himself that it had been cool that Pidge had hacked the surveillance cameras in the med-tent. He had idly wondered what else his teammate might be hiding? 

Then, Keith (UGH) had shown up to rescue Shiro, but of course _that_ was unacceptable, because Lance had already decided that he and the others would take care of that. One insane car chase later, complete with terrifying cliff jump, the five of them found themselves at a house- or shack? Really, it seemed more like a shack, he thought- where Keith had been living. And now Shiro was telling them about the aliens, and a weapon called… Voltron? Lance could not believe what an adventure this was turning into.

His eyes shifted over to his best friend as Hunk began speaking. “Well, last night I was rummaging through Pidge’s stuff,” he began, pulling something from the bag. “…and I found this picture; look, it’s his girlfriend!” Hunk grinned and gave a little laugh. 

Lance’s eyes widened slightly as he focused in on the photograph. 

There she was. 

The mystery girl. 

In the purple dress. 

The same one she had been wearing when he first glanced her.

She stood there, smiling, with another boy’s arm wrapped around her shoulders, drawing her in close. …Pidge’s arm.

Pidge’s girlfriend.

Hunk’s eyes darted over to Lance as Pidge exclaimed, “Hey! Gimme that!” and grabbed the picture out of his hand. He saw Lance’s frozen expression: wide eyes, slight frown. Hunk’s own expression changed then as he put two and two together. 

He did not have time to dwell on Lance finally seeing mystery girl again, as Pidge seized his backpack away from Hunk and demanded, “What were you doing in my stuff?!”

Hunk went on with his explanation, but Lance wasn’t really listening.

All this time he had been trying to find the mystery girl… and she was someone else’s girlfriend.

He pushed this thought from his head. They were in the middle of an adventure, after all! If he needed a distraction from these depressing thoughts, this was about as good as it could get.  
“…kind of like a ‘Voltron Geiger Counter’.” Hunk was finishing.

“Hunk, you big, gassy genius!” Lance exclaimed.

Hunk grinned, glad to see his friend wasn’t dwelling on his unspoken discovery. “It’s pretty fascinating, really! The wavelength looks like this!” he pulled out a paper with a visual representation drawn out on it.

“Give me that!” said Keith, taking the paper from Hunk’s hands and carrying it to his collage on the wall.

No one in the room could have predicted that their real adventure was only just beginning.

* * *

If you had told Lance just last week that he would be sitting inside a castle, on a different planet in a galaxy light years away from his own, mentally trying to bond and form a giant, robot lion-based ultra-weapon with four other people… he would have definitely thought you were crazy. Very creative, but crazy nonetheless. 

Yet, here they were.

They had met aliens- Alteans- Princess Allura and her advisor, Coran. They had each been given a lion to pilot and the title of paladin, and they had even managed to form Voltron once! The real problem, it seemed, was trying to form it again. 

They had tried several different ideas and techniques, many at Coran’s instruction, and the latest of these had the paladins sitting in a circle on the floor, attempting to meld their minds by pushing all other distractions aside.

Lance thought of his family. He missed them; he wondered if they knew? Surely by now the Garrison had contacted them to say he had gone missing. If nothing else, his sister Veronica would have been informed almost immediately, and she would have gotten the word out. Not for the first time, Lance felt guilty about the worry his family must be experiencing.

Coran instructed them to focus on forming their lion. Lance and the others seemed to be doing well with pushing their blocks aside as they mentally sent their lion avatars to the middle of the circle to begin forming Voltron. All except Pidge, who seemed to be struggling…

“Pidge!” Keith said sternly, “Stop thinking of your girlfriend!”

“I WASN’T! Hunk was rooting around in my head!” he angrily exclaimed.

Lance felt a little twist in his gut. He had been trying to forget about mystery girl and the recent revelation that she was Pidge’s girlfriend. Having an attractive space princess to focus his flirtation toward had helped some, but he had not been able to put the other girl completely from his mind.

With another assertion to “Clear your minds!” from Coran, the paladins began again, this time with Pidge’s participation. They were doing well, and had almost successfully formed their mini-mental-Voltron, when the green lion flickered back to the picture of Pidge and the girl.

Lance could not stop himself from exclaiming in irritation. “Pidge!”

Pidge let out a guttural growl, then flung the mental linking device to the floor. “I’m done with this!” He crossed his arms defiantly. “Look, I don’t like everyone grubbing around in my head!”

Lance frowned to himself as Shiro tried to calm Pidge down. He couldn’t really blame Pidge for being upset, he thought to himself. He hadn’t been able to put the girl in the purple dress from his mind since the day he first saw her… and he wasn’t even her boyfriend.

* * *

Pidge is a girl.

Pidge is a… girl.

Pidge… is a girl.

It doesn’t matter how many times he thinks it, or how he says it in his head or otherwise, this newest twist in their adventure throws him for a loop.

Lance had always figured he was fairly observant. He had sharp eyes, but somehow this fact had escaped him. 

Pidge is a girl. He… no, she… had enrolled in the Garrison and managed to assume a false identity and pass herself off as a boy, all so she could have a chance to find her father and her brother. That was why he… no, _she_ … was so sensitive regarding anyone talking about the Kerberos mission. 

Lance admired her bravery. All this to find her family… He loved his family, loved them and missed them so much, he could understand her motivation. If something similar had happened to anyone in his family… if it was, say, Veronica who had been mysteriously lost on a mission, would he have done the same? He would definitely have wanted to… And here was Pidge, who by a gracious twist of fate had found herself in what was possibly the best position to make any real progress towards finding her father and brother. But she wasn’t just doing that; she had also agreed to stay and pilot the green lion, to stay and fight a war she didn’t have to, and to contribute her amazing intellect and technological prowess not just to locate her loved ones, but to help a universe of people she had never met and who would never properly thank her. All of that, everything about her, struck Lance in a way that he did not fully understand. But he smiled anyway.

As he lay in bed, waiting for sleep, he let these thoughts bounce around his head. He found himself thinking about the mystery girl in the purple dress, and was a little shocked to realize that he had not thought about her very much lately. Maybe they had just been too busy lately? Or maybe he was distracted…?

He thought again about the picture Hunk had found in Pidge’s belongings. The boy in the picture had not been Pidge at all, he realized. She and her brother looked fairly similar, so the little differences had not stood out to him at first glance; but, now that her secret was public knowledge, and now that he knew her a little better, he wondered how he could have ever been fooled. Obviously, the boy in the picture was Matt, Pidge’s brother. And the mystery girl was not Pidge’s girlfriend at all.

She was Matt’s girlfriend.

Lance sighed. _Well…_ he thought, closing his eyes, _I guess it doesn’t really matter._ He yawned as sleep overtook him. _I probably won’t ever see her again, anyway._


End file.
